ABSTRACT Seeds are the ‘chips’ of agriculture; the use and promotion of improved seeds are crucial for ensuring food security. This study employs Rehmannia glutinosa as a case study and conducts a joint measurement experiment on farmers' risk and time preferences in rural China. This study aimed to assess the contribution of cognitive ability to farmers' adoption of agricultural technology and to identify potential underlying channels. The study builds upon and extends prior research on the determinants of farmers' adoption of agricultural technologies. The results indicate that higher cognitive ability increases the likelihood of adopting improved seed technology. Farmers with greater cognitive ability exhibit lower risk aversion and greater patience, making them more likely to adopt such innovations. Overall, this study has substantial practical implications for advancing the dissemination of improved agricultural seeds.
ABSTRACT In energy‐only electricity markets, such as the Australian National Electricity Market (NEM), all electricity is bought and sold within the spot market and energy retailers hedge their load using financial contracts. These interrelated markets are key aspects of the NEM design. As governments increasingly decarbonise electricity grids through direct underwriting of variable renewable energy (VRE), they are also replacing the types of contracts available for retail hedging. A recent review of the NEM proposed a series of alternative contracts to both finance new VRE and hedge electricity retailer load. This article models the ability of a suite of different ‘firmed renewables’ derivative contract types to hedge electricity retail load and compares their performance to traditional financial futures and caps contracts currently available to retailers in the NEM under a specific modelled scenario. The results suggest that the contracts proposed by the NEM Review can replicate the proposed benchmark in their ability to hedge retail load.
ABSTRACT Food markets are becoming increasingly important for rural food security in developing countries, beyond subsistence agriculture. This study examines how rural food markets affect food‐at‐home consumption and nutrient intake among rural residents in three provinces of central China. Greater food market availability increases the consumption of relatively more market‐constrained foods, including meat, aquatic products, eggs and milk and dairy products, while reducing the reliance on relatively less market‐constrained staples, particularly cereals. These changes are associated with improved dietary balance and dietary diversity. Although total energy intake does not change significantly, nutrient composition shifts towards higher animal‐source energy, animal‐source protein and fat intake and lower plant‐source energy, plant‐source protein and carbohydrate intake. The effects also vary across market formats. These findings extend the existing evidence on how rural food markets shape diets and nutrition in developing countries and provide policy implications for improving the availability of nutritious foods in rural areas.
Rapid growth in digital finance has expanded credit access for rural smallholders, yet financial capability has not kept pace with access. Where fee structures are opaque and search is costly, this gap raises the risk of expensive borrowing in digital financial services. This paper assesses whether a video-based financial knowledge intervention affects stated willingness to pay for digital credit. Using contingent valuation with a payment card approach, we measure willingness to pay before and after information provision among 694 smallholder households in Meru County, Kenya. Our results show that the video intervention reduced the monthly interest rate that smallholders are willing to pay by 1.4 percentage points. This finding suggests that the intervention increased sensitivity to borrowing costs and reduced stated tolerance for higher-priced digital credit. It also provides policy-relevant evidence that brief, targeted video prompts can complement consumer-protection measures by shifting stated credit choices toward lower interest-rate categories.
Alongside the 2024-2025 review of the National Electricity Market, Australian energy companies faced the most significant reforms to climate disclosures in corporate history. Specifically, the Australian Sustainability Reporting Standard for Climate-related Disclosures (AASB S2) was announced in September 2024, after which all entities falling within the purview of the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act-effectively every major electricity generator and retailer-were required to identify and disclose climate-related risks and opportunities. This includes Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions and scenario analysis of their exposure to climate disruptions. Whilst some energy companies had already voluntarily disclosed some elements of this information, these new requirements required more consistent, comparable and forward-looking reporting. We examine the early stages of measures taken by the energy sector to comply with AASB S2. Drawing on a 12-month collaboration with the Australian Energy Council, our case study highlights the need for greater attention to robust methodologies for calculating Scope 3 emissions and stress testing climate scenarios, including the policy assumptions that underpin them. Importantly, this research highlights the risks inherent to any national standard that is more closely aligned to policy aspirations than to climate science, given that such discrepancies may pose risks to the resilience of the National Electricity Market. This study also contributes to stakeholder theory by illustrating the need for greater attention to how sector-level collaboration among competitors can support improved corporate disclosures, especially in relation to climate governance.
